It has been reported that when the Black Swans saw their first White Humans they were VERY surprised, but when they were taken to England and saw their first
White Swans they refused to believe it
From: David Rees [
Sent: Monday, 9 May 2016 8:53 AM
To: Philip Veerman
Cc: canberrabirds chatline
Subject: Re: [canberrabirds] Image of Black Swan
Black Swans, seen feral ones in southern England hanging round with the much bigger Mute Swans.
On Sun, May 8, 2016 at 5:49 PM, Philip Veerman <> wrote:
Certainly a nice close photo, to which I will comment on this and other comments:
The serrations are normal and usually hidden when the beak is closed. I don't know if these structures are in the bone at all. I suspect not, (I do have a swan's skull in my collection and don't recall seeing this). It is likely to be just part of the keratin
layer of the beak. Some cartoonists like to show birds with teeth, Daffy Duck I think commonly. Maybe that came from pictures like this one. Anyone could easily say it looks like it has teeth but it does not, of course.
As you have noticed, there is a bit of cranial kinesis there, although in the reverse of what we usually see, as in it is extending the jaw hinge from the base (I think anatomically moving the quadrate bone forward without moving the palatine bone,) rather
than extending the tip.
As for where to find Black Swans outside Aus. They are....... I was a bit surprised to see them in a botanical garden adjoining the zoo in Wuhan, China.
Philip
-----Original Message-----
From: Con Boekel [
Sent: Sunday, 8 May, 2016 11:29 AM
To: canberrabirds chatline
Subject: Image of Black Swan
Hi
This is an unusal image in that it shows the beak serrations which are normally not visible. I have searched the readily available on-line databases without being able to see something similar. This bird, and what I presume to be its partner, were engaging
in some mutual behaviour that involved both birds sitting absolutely still in the water, facing each other and with the lower mandible held closed at the tip but with the serrations showing. I am not sure whether the birds had lowered the jaw end of the mandibles
or whether this is even possible.
regards
Con
Details
Black Swan
Gungahlin Pond
Image captured: 5 May 2016
*******************************************************************************************************
This is the email announcement and discussion list of the Canberra Ornithologists Group.
Emails posted to the list that exceed 200 kB in size, including attachments, will be rejected.
All emails distributed via the list are archived at
http://bioacoustics.cse.unsw.edu.au/archives/html/canberrabirds. It is a condition of list membership that you agree to your contributions being archived.
When subscribing or unsubscribing, please insert the word 'Subscribe' or 'Unsubscribe', as applicable, in the email's subject line.
List-Post: <>
List-Help: <>
List-Unsubscribe: <>
List-Subscribe: <>
List manager: David McDonald, email <>
|
|